Calif. legislature passes strict school vaccine bill

CBS, AP, News 10

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS/AP) -- California lawmakers have passed a contentious bill that would impose one of the strictest school vaccination laws in the country after a series of emotionally charged debates.

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown has not said if he would sign it.

The bill gets rid of California's personal belief exemption for immunizations, which allowed many families toopt out of vaccinatingtheir children. While medical exemptions would still be granted to children with serious health issues, other unvaccinated children would need to be homeschooled. The Senate on Monday reaffirmed the bill striking California's personal belief exemption for immunizations on a 24-14 vote.

Democratic Sens. Richard Pan of Sacramento and Ben Allen of Santa Monica introduced SB277 after an outbreak ofmeasles at Disneylandin December infected over 100 people in the U.S. and Mexico. California's proposal is intended to boost vaccination rates. The measure would only allow children with serious health problems to opt out of school-mandated vaccinations.

Pan, a pediatrician, has said he worries about thespread of preventable illnesses. "We are seeing ever larger outbreaks of diseases like pertussis, whooping cough, measles, and we certainly don't want to see those diseases or others that are prevented by vaccines to be spread into our communities," he told CBS Sacramento.

"We have diseases that are showing up on public transit and restaurants and schools and shopping centers, theme parks, that is not what we want California to be," Pan said.

If the bill becomes law, California would join Mississippi and West Virginia as the only states with such strict requirements.

It has prompted the most heated legislative debate of the year with thousands of opponents taking to social media and protesting legislative hearings.

"The governor believes that vaccinations are profoundly important and a major public health benefit and any bill that reaches his desk will be closely considered," said Brown's spokesman Evan Westrup.

The bill has drawn heated opposition from parents who have come by the thousand to protest at the Capitol in recent months.

Christina Hildebrand of the parents' group A Voice for Choice, which strongly argued against the bill,told CBS Los Angeles' KNX 1070 Newsradioit's an issue of civil liberties. "Realistically, this bill isn't about whether vaccinations are safe or not safe," said Hildebrand. "Our opposition is because itmandates vaccines, it takes away our children's fundamental right to an education."

But a mother whose then 4-month-old son contracted measles when he was too young to be vaccinated urged lawmakers to pass the bill. "I shouldn't have had to fear for his life," Ariel Looptold CBS Sacramentoin April. "The idea of him or some other child dying from something as stupid as a fever or the complications of that in 2015 is just unnecessary."

Amid all the protests and controversy, the bill passed both the Senate and the Assembly with bipartisan support.